Sandisk WP7 certified cards are now available, up to 32GB

Yesterday we mentioned about Samsung's unofficial/official response regarding the expansion card issue. Now today, Sandisk appears to be taking the lead in selling "certified" expansion cards for Windows Phone 7, ranging in sizes form 2 to 32GB.

While the whole certified business always seemed to be a part of the plan, it looks like Microsoft and partners were caught a little off guard by the whole situation, causing AT&T to revise their position many times and OEMs to scramble to offer up support. Things though finally look to be falling in place and considering we're only 1 week into the U.S. launch, it's not too bad.

However, buying these official cards will cost you. The 16GB version will set you back $115 with shipping and the 32GB will run you a jaw dropping $206.

eBay purchased cards are probably part of the reason that MS has had to backtrack on its Micro SD card support. Anyone that's been around the internet for a while knows that there are certain things that you should never buy from eBay. Memory and batteries are probably the most counterfeited products sold on eBay. Its not uncommon to find defective cards that have been relabeled or cards that have been 'tweaked' to appear that they are higher capacity than what they were built to. Do a bit of research and you'll find countless stories out there.

And so the scam is revealed, twice the price for a "certified" storage card that is no different from one bought from any other retailer. And making excuses that its only 1 week into the US launch, really? Its not as though these storage cards just magically appeard in the devices. Just another demonstration that MS has no clue about the mobile space. Stark contrast to how they seem to be 100% behind Kinect, booming sales and huge advertising. Looks like WP7 is just the stop gap till WP8, equivalent to Vista.

How does the demonstrate how MS has no clue about the mobile space? They weren't supporting user accessible expanded memory from the gate with v1. Also, they aren't even selling these cards, SanDisk is. It's not like with the Xbox where they are responsible for pricing. This is all on the manufacture.

Tear-downs of WP7 phones coming straight from the factory with Sandisk memory modules, either soldered directly to a board or theoretically replaceable, show the same part numbers as their non-certified cousins. While it's quite possible that either the phone manufacturers or Sandisk tested existing modules to find those that met a higher standard (a standard I must point out whose exact nature have yet to be explained in detail) similar to what Intel does with CPUs, I'd like to offer an alternate explanation:

A part Microsoft's "plan" in the mobile space has always been to use it OS to drive hardware sales. A complete OS revamp is one aspect of this. Another is to provide a way for manufacturers to create a model/price range without actually having to produce different hardware. With WP7's model, you can have a 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, etc., models with matching prices without actually making a different phone. The only issue is when users figure out they can upgrade on the cheap themselves. So Microsoft and the phone manufacturers put up artificial roadblocks:

1. The manufacture's solder the memory modules directly to the phone's circuit board.

2. Microsoft adopts a memory management model that makes swapping the phone's memory equivalent to updating the ROM of a WM phone.

3. If all else fails, claim that the require memory modules are "special".

We're all familiar with how Apple only recommends Apple memory for their desktops and laptops because it's somehow better. It's a pure profit play; years of user experience have proven that third-part memory works perfectly well in Apple hardware. I don't think it's going very far out on a limb to state that time will prove the same is true of so-called "WP7 certified" memory.

Those calling conspiracy theory on MS and hardware manufacturers are wrong, IMO. This whole fiasco is no different from purchasing 3rd party USB chargers or chords. You'd think that since it fits your phone it should work, and that we shouldn't have to buy the ones "certified" for our specific device. But as experience taught me, they are not all made equal. Some USB's allowed my phone to charge, but not sync data. Others don't even see my phone at all. So get over it. If you think it cost too much, shop around, as others have suggested.

Yeah - I orded one from Newegg last week for my DVP - god knows it's probably a worthless POS right now, but that aside, while it shows a C2 on the site - I definitely received the model number listed there.

Kinda funny because not but a few days ago, the images on SanDisk's on site showed only C2 32GB cards...but whatever :)